Liquid / Syringe help!

So I need to feed Dwight a liquid medication. They provided a syringe to stick in his mouth for feeding. But I can foresee the stuff going all over. I tried to give it to him in a spoon, but he didnt want it, I tried to mix it with his favorite treat (they are both sweet) and that didnt work, so I mixed it all in his food hoping he gets most of it. Does anyone have any advice for "tricking" my rabbit into drinking his medicine?! Or any advice on what works best! I may just have to have someone hold him while I stick the thing in his mouth, but I thought I would get some advice first

I sit on the floor with my legs infront of me and get Kermit in between, facing me, and hold him tight (ish) with my legs while giving him his meds.

Alot of people wrap their buns up in a towel, but Kermit goes berzerk when i try that!!

tomhighway said:

I sit on the floor with my legs infront of me and get Kermit in between, facing me, and hold him tight (ish) with my legs while giving him his meds.

Alot of people wrap their buns up in a towel, but Kermit goes berzerk when i try that!!

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Yeah my vet will wrap him in a towel when she looks in his mouth, he doesnt seem to mind, so I should prob try that!

You are probably doing this anyway so just checking. When you put the syringe in his mouth make sure you do it at the side of his mouth so it goes in behind his front teeth

This will be me too tomorrow with Grace's Metacam! Dreading it! See other thread about Grace's sneezing.

Try adding the dose of metacam to some grated carrot.. I sniffed the metacam and thought ewww omg.. theyr'es no way he's gonna like this.. but I was supprised.. he actually seems to love the stuff.. aparently it's sweet and honey flavoured..

worth a shot to save you the stress of trying to syringe it in.. just wish it was the same for all his other meds..

M

Thanks. Vets always seem so dismissive of adding meds. to food but it's easy for them to say. I know they are keen to make sure the whole dose is taken but we are not all experts with a syringe. The Marbocyl injections will be challenge enough for me. (Wish me luck with this.) Grace has always been good in the past and I watch her and make sure she scoffs the lot. Mushed pellets has always worked well so the Metacam will go in this I think.

Hiya, I'm currently giving my bunny Baytril. I was really worried about giving it to him from a syringe but he's been really good. I wrap him up in a towel and once I manage to get the syringe in his mouth, he king of chews it and I just push the plunger. Surprisingly easy!! :bunny:

I hear ya..bout some vets they just say.. "oh just do this, or just do that etc" like it's a peice of cake.. I know they mean well, but the reality of actually doing it always seem much more challenging at home, at least that's my experience so far.

I read somewhere on here I think that they fight you more at home because they feel a lot more confident..so that's a good thing but makes it harder to give their meds..

also your supposed to give metacam with food, so in a way I figured that by adding it to some carrot etc, he's actually getting food with it too, but the challenges of syringe feeding..oh my!..

fibreplex may as well be sausage and onion flavour..carrot flavour just didn't seem to cut it..so until we overcame the challenge of shringe feeding him, we used to squirt it on his paw, but it's really hard to get an accurate dose that way and I always worried about him ingesting fur etc..

I don't know if it's just me, but one thing I discovered with buns is there is an awful lot of catch 22's for some reason. but that's just one thing, I learnt a lot. and I'm still learning.. I only ever had cats and dogs, and a garter snake..

Good Luck! though you will do just fine... we constantly supprise ourselves..and there is lots of amazing and helpful and experienced folk on these boards.. I love this place..

M

Hi there

I have been giving one of my buns baytril and metacam for many months, and I find the best way is to give them in food. I inject the baytil into a very small piece of toasted tea loaf, and I drop the metacam onto a piece of banana.

Might be worth a try!

i find metacam wil be taken straight from the syringe and pannacur and baytril go really nicely in 2 tea spoons of hipp red berry and apple flavour baby food in a little saucer our buns go mad for their treat(meds!!)

Thanks everyone! These ideas are great, I'll try them when I get home!

What size syringe are you using. I use the 1ml syringe, wrap bunny in a towel on my lap and find the hole at the side of the mouth behind the front teeth. He takes the meds fine but if I try and use a bigger syringe then he'll fight me.

joeyred said:

What size syringe are you using. I use the 1ml syringe, wrap bunny in a towel on my lap and find the hole at the side of the mouth behind the front teeth. He takes the meds fine but if I try and use a bigger syringe then he'll fight me.

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I believe mine is a 3ml, which is quite big. Tonight I am going to wrap him in a towel again and try a smaller eyedropper. I notice he squirms a lot when I try to do it with any tool. When hes at the vet he barely moves cause he's in an unknown place, how unfair!!